City of Troutdale Request for Proposal Website Design, Hosting, and Maintenance Due: On or before July 18, 2016

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1 Introduction & Overview City of Troutdale Request for Proposal Website Design, Hosting, and Maintenance Due: On or before July 18, 2016 The City of Troutdale (City) is seeking the services of an experienced website design firm to re-design, develop, implement, and host a website for the city. The City recognizes the importance of having a website that provides effective citizen engagement and communication. This project will be from concept through design and implementation, and involve migrating information from the city s existing website as well as implementing new information, products, and features as suggested by the city and the successful proposer. The City current web presence is outdated in appearance, structure, the presentation of content, and is difficult to navigate. The City s existing internet website is which contains general information for the public including agendas and minutes, council and department information, city history, financial information including budgets, audits, check registers, etc., and other pertinent city information. An opportunity exists to re-engineer the site to better reflect the City s goal of improving citizen engagement, communication and to incorporate the latest technology. The City desires development of a website that is current, professional, and appealing in appearance, and designed for the ease of use from the visitor s view. The city is interested in an uncluttered clean and simple design that is easily navigable by citizens, businesses, and visitors. Website Objectives The goal of the City s website project is to provide electronic access to city services and information centered on searchability and displaying relevant content to citizens, rather than pretty pictures and unique layouts. Specifically the city s goal is to provide ease of access to city information, online forms and applications, processes and procedures, meeting information including agendas and minutes of meetings, a calendar of events, photo hosting, and a variety of other activities. The city will expect the successful proposer participate in the selection of theme, content, information presentation, and overall design of the website. The website should provide easy access to city services, be adaptable to current and changing technology, and provide content management capability for non-technical city staff. The website shall meet the following objectives: 1. First and foremost be user friendly for experienced and novice users, and the homepage must dynamically serve real-time content to visitors. 2. Be simple in design yet visually appealing on all user platforms. 3. Increase awareness of the City Council goals and activities through the automated integration with various social media commination platforms. Page 1

2 4. Be automated and negate the need for staff time to make homepage adjustments manually, and be updatable by non-technical city staff. 5. Deliver a consistent image, maintain a common look/theme (brand) throughout, a standardized format for all pages. 6. Provide for mobile functionality across various platforms, and must dynamically scale to fit all web browsers as well as mobile equipment such as smart phones and tablets. 7. Link or integrate closely with existing City other electronic systems and services. 8. Provide a framework that permits future expansion and addition of new online services as the City's budget, technology needs and demands allow. 9. Meet current ADA Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. 10. Meet current standard security requirements. The information on the website should be directed towards the public, businesses, visitors, other government agencies, civic groups, associations, youth and senior citizen groups. Scope of Work The revised update will: Re-create and enhance the City s existing website to be resourceful, informative, and provide a friendly environment which emphasizes access to the public. The preferred website model calls for authorized members to have the ability to perform routine content management tasks by non-technical persons to part or all of the website depending on the authorization granted by senior staff. Tasks will include, but not be limited to, posting of meeting dates, agendas, minutes, calendar of events, removing outdated information, and general noticing. Create a consistent and standardized format and enhanced graphical look for all pages. Provide consistent orientation and navigational aids such as hierarchical menus that tell users how deep they are into a topic or subtopic as well as a home page link or icon on each page in the same position. Allow for interactivity by incorporating the ability for users to complete interactive online forms. Design with simplicity to allow for quickest loading, using graphic and/or image files relative to the site. Use industry standard techniques to ensure indexing and listing by all major search engines. Web pages should be tested using multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) and varying load speeds (dial up fiber optic) to ensure each webpage can be accessed efficiently. A number of static forms may be available for printing. The website must have links or embedded plug-ins such as Java and Adobe for opening and viewing these documents. Transfer relevant content from the existing City website to the new site and archive any remaining data. Page 2

3 Website should be designed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind by implementing the following SEO best practices into new site: a. Optimized unique title, meta & alt tags. b. Proper setup and testing of Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. c. Redirect all existing links to new locations to prevent any drop in website performance and prevent indexing issues. d. Optimized images for faster loading. e. Migrate existing on-page optimizations from current website to new website. The City will expect the successful proposer to offer ideas and suggestions in the design and style of the website. Proposers are encouraged to recommend alternative solutions and improvements. The successful proposer firm will be able to demonstrate in depth knowledge and experience in innovative and interactive web design. A firm that can handle all site planning, interface design and production is required. Deliverables The following are expected to be delivered to the City by the vendor and become the sole property of the City for its exclusive use and dissemination. A complete website Any/All electronic files Any/All images used in the publications Any/All text or content generated as a result of this project Any/All proofs, guides, and templates Requested Information & Proposal Format 1. Firm name, address, telephone number, principal contact, and address. 2. Table of contents. 3. A proposed service agreement. 4. The names and a summary of the professional experience or the proposers Project Manager and associated support staff that the City can expect to manage the project and produce project deliverables. 5. The Proposal shall be comprehensive and contain all costs associated with the successful completion of the website: a. Indicate any sub-contractors that will participate in the development, training, or hosting of the website. b. Identify and incorporate within the scope, schedule and budget any third-party applications, services or contractors necessary in order to provide a coherent end-product that the proposer recommends be utilized in their proposed website. c. A proposed schedule and budget to scope the design process and provide midstream quality-control to both identify specific design elements and confirm design expectations as the website development process matures. If meetings, Page 3

4 workshops surveys or other intermittent steps to clarify the scope or confirm the design are proposed, those should be clearly identified as either contained within the project budget or identified as add-ons. d. Identify within the budget both one-time setup costs and ongoing site maintenance costs. e. List the content management system software that will be used to create the site including all graphics software and all software and licenses that the City will need to purchase for the continued updating and maintenance of the website. f. List the basic security standards to be provided and recommended enhanced security provisions and costs. g. List the industry standard techniques provided to ensure indexing and listing by all major search engines. h. A detailed work plan describing your approach to designing, managing, and coordinating this project. The description should include all tasks listed in the scope of work for all phases of the project and a tentative schedule, which are expected to serve as specific project contract deliverables in a mutually agreed form and timing as a basis for contract payments, subject to approval by the City as to their satisfactory completion. i. A list of comparable websites designed by your firm, including the website address, company/agency contact person, address, and telephone number. j. A section of relevant website development experience and information on the extent of your firm s abilities to meet the needs of this project. k. A budget including the total project cost, as well as detailed line item costs for components/phases of the project. All hourly rates and fees, charges, costs and anticipated reimbursable costs must be clearly stated. l. Any warranties or guarantees, and associated conditions thereof. 6. The proposal must be ed to erich.mueller@troutdaleoregon.gov on or before 5:00 p.m. PST on July 18, Proposal Evaluation/Selection Process It is the intent of the City to receive competitive proposals from firms having specific experience and qualifications in the areas identified in this solicitation. Under competitive negotiation procedures, the terms of the service contract, the price of the service, the method of service delivery, and conditions of performance are all negotiable. The negotiated contract will be awarded to the agency that best meets the proposed needs at a reasonable price, not necessarily at the lowest price. The City retains the right to reject any and all bids or to waive any irregularities in the proposal process in the received bids where such rejection or waiver is in the best interest of the City as determined by the City. The City will be the sole judge of the suitability of products, services and system designs offered Page 4

5 Evaluation and Selection Criteria The City s staff will review and evaluate all proposals and, if appropriate, request a preliminary concept for the design and navigation of the proposed website. Evaluation of proposals will generally adhere to the following criteria: 1. Qualifications of respondent, including: a. Demonstrated competence and professional qualifications necessary for successfully performing the work included in the RFP. The City will evaluate the project team and the methodology proposed for carrying out the project. b. Recent experience in successfully performing similar services. c. Experience in developing a website interactive, user friendly, informative and attractive to the website user. d. Experience in content management website construction The City will consider the respondents experience in designing websites, particularly government sites, and overall understanding of site architecture, navigation, search capabilities and other components of website sign. e. Demonstrated creativity in website development. 2. References. 3. Cost. 4. Extent to which the design concepts reflects the objectives of the City. Final Selection Following the review of the proposals, and possible presentation and interviews, the City may further invite a firm or firms to meet with City staff prior to making a final determination to address additional inquiries and to discuss and/or negotiate terms and conditions for a final contract. The top respondents may be asked to virtually present their proposals and provide a demonstration of sample projects. Following the review process, it is the intent of the City to enter into an agreement with a firm to provide the services listed in this RFP, however, the City reserves the right to reject any and/or all proposals received; waive any informality in proposals; and to accept, reject, and/or add any items when such actions are in the best interest of the City. Agreement The selected firm will be required to enter into a negotiated Agreement with the City to provide the services listed in this RFP. Such Agreement shall not be effective unless and until approved by the City Manager for the City. Upon approval of the Agreement, the successful firm shall start within 30 days. Respondents are encouraged to contact Erich Mueller with any questions. Final proposals submitted are to be ed erich.mueller@troutdaleoregon.gov no later than July 18, 2016 and should contain Troutdale Website Proposal in the subject line. Page 5